Is it possible to find the perfect Sequim home with a water view ready to move into? This almost sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t, and this is another true story with a few bumps along the way and with a happy ending.
It is possible to find a gorgeous water view home in Sequim, but with the inventory so low, it won’t be easy. Here are 6 steps to finding your ideal home. I’ll include a 30 second video below on this gorgeous home I just sold, and as you can see it has a sweet view of Mount Baker. In the foreground is Sequim Bay, then a glimpse of Protection Island to the lower right of Mount Baker, and of course, we are looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
What is The First Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The very first step is finding a top notch Exclusive Buyer’s Agent. While this first step is obviously self-serving for me, it is absolutely the most important step of all the steps to finding your Sequim home, and since this article is free and I don’t require any registration or collect any PII (personally identifiable information), and since I do zero spam or email marketing to clients, you don’t have to hire me for this first step to be true. I promise you, after 40 years in real estate, including 20 as a real estate attorney, I cannot possibly count how many times buyers (and sellers) later regretted hiring the Realtor they did hire. I won’t, but I could tell you nightmare story after nightmare story, and I still get phone calls regularly from buyers who hired the wrong Realtor and now find themselves in a very untenable position. Hire me or don’t hire me if you think this is self-serving, but whatever you do, don’t hire an incompetent or unprofessional or unethical broker. Clearly, you will have to do some involved research online to figure this out.
What is The Second Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The second step is finding a reliable and thorough and free online real estate blog that you can use to research Sequim, and find answers about living in Sequim, unique Sequim issues, and on finding your ideal Sequim home.
Alas, there is such an online site that requires no registration and which you can use anonymously. The largest Sequim real estate blog with over 2,200 articles written for buyers is yours free to use at SequimBlog.com. You can browse articles by going back in time, or you can use the category drop down menu to find all articles on a particular subject, or you can search by word or by phrase to find the answers to your questions. All the articles are written by yours truly, Chuck Marunde, local real estate broker and with 20 years of experience as a real estate attorney (retired), and these articles essentially answer all the questions buyers have been asking about Sequim for the past two decades.
What is The Third Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The third step to finding your Sequim home, which you can implement simultaneously with the second step, is to find a good Sequim MLS site, or multiple MLS sites to view all the homes listed and pending on the market. Having worked with all the local and syndicated national MLS sites that post Sequim listings, here is my recommendation.
For a couple of decades I had multiple MLS sites that I designed and programmed and maintained for buyers to have options as they searched for a Sequim area home. Of course, when I say “Sequim,” include the neighboring towns like Port Townsend, Port Gamble, Port Ludlow, Port Hadlock, and Port Angeles.
In the beginning, Zillow’s database was incomplete and their AI on Zestimates for the Sequim area was not accurate. That’s why I created other MLS sites that included all the listings in the two MLS systems here, the Olympic Listing Service and the Northwest MLS. But as the years passed, Zillow’s database became more complete and their AI improved to the point that I now recommend Zillow as your primary MLS search tool. Zillow has continued to improve the available information, and now it is packed full of relevant data about each home, including all listings in the Sequim area. When you find a home of interest on Zillow that you would like my help with as your Exclusive Buyer’s Agent, you can simply text me (or email) the Zillow link, and I’ll have everything I need to answer your questions.
What is The Fourth Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The fourth step, which is optional, but buyers love this resource, is to tap into the hundreds of buyer videos I created on my Living in Sequim Youtube channel. These are videos about Sequim, real estate, and Chuck answers many questions buyers find useful. By the way, I’m launching a whole new series of Sequim real estate videos for 2024, which I’m very excited about, and which I am fairly certain you will love.
There will be two primary series that will get my full attention. The first is a new series for buyers on all things about searching, finding, researching, negotiating, doing your due diligence, dealing with property restrictions, and handling all the legalese and contracts to protect your backside. I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn on this, but I will, because I’ve been in real estate for over 40 years, 20 as a real estate attorney, and author of many real estate books, so I can honestly argue that you won’t find a more qualified and sincerely hard working buyer’s agent than me. If you can, hire him!
The second series will be just plain fun. This series will be nature videos all around the Sequim area, in the Olympic Mountains, Hurricane Ridge, at the start of the Sequim-Dungeness River, up the Elwha River, around the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the end of the spit where the Sequim-Dungeness Lighthouse is located, along the hiking and horse riding trails, and much more. So watch for these fun videos coming throughout the year, and my channel is easily findable on the Internet, because it is the largest Sequim real estate channel on Youtube of any individual real estate broker, and it is highly optimized for the search engines. The link is https://www.youtube.com/cmarunde.
What is The Fifth Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The fifth step to finding your Sequim home is to tap into the knowledge of the local area and local real estate market, and you can do that by texting, emailing, or calling your Sequim Buyer’s Agent about specific properties or other questions you have about the process. A knowledgeable agent is worth his weight in gold. Well, maybe not worth that much, but he can be an invaluable resource who can help you navigate uncharted waters and save you from all kinds of “traps for the unwary.” Should you choose to connect with Chuck Marunde, you can do so by texting or calling him on his only phone number, 360-775-5424, or you can email him at ChuckMarunde@gmail.com. The most reliable way is to text.
What is The Sixth Step to Finding the Perfect Home?
The sixth step is not necessarily sequential either, and you will logically do all of these almost simultaneously or in whatever order you like, but this step is simply calling your buyer’s agent and chatting with him on the phone–essentially an informal interview. You’ll know almost right away if your buyer’s agent is the right fit for you, and if you’re not sure, then he probably is not the right fit. Do your online research first, but the telephone conversation is absolutely essential. What your agent says and how he says it, and how he responds to you and your questions will tell you a lot. But if you don’t have a high degree of confidence that this agent is the absolutely right agent for you, then he is probably not. Listen to your discernment. After all, it took you a lifetime to develop that discernment. Right?
Now you’re ready to start researching Sequim real estate and looking at homes. Have fun!
Last Updated on January 10, 2024 by Chuck Marunde